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Class Size Reduction and Student Achievement

The Potential Tradeoff between Teacher Quality and Class Size

	Abstract

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This paper investigates the effects of California’s billion-dollar class-size-reduction program on student achievement. It uses year-to-year differences in class size generated by variation in enrollment and the state’s class-size-reduction program to identify both the direct effects of smaller classes and related changes in teacher quality. Although the results show that smaller classes raised mathematics and reading achievement, they also show that the increase in the share of teachers with neither prior experience nor full certification dampened the benefits of smaller classes, particularly in schools with high shares of economically disadvantaged, minority students.

	References

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Angrist, Joshua, and Victor Lavy. 1999. "Using Maimonides’ Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Scholastic Achievement." Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(2): 533–76.

Ballou, Dale, and Michael Podrusky. 1997. Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality . Kalamazoo, MI: The Upjohn Institute.

Bohrnstedt, George and Brian Stecher, eds. 1999. Class Size Reduction in California: Early Evaluation Findings, 1996–1998 . Palo Alto: American Institutes for Research.

Boyd, Don, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff. 2003. "Analyzing the Determinants of the Matching of Public School Teachers to Jobs." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Number 9878.

Ehrenberg, Ronald, Dominic Brewer, Adam Gamoran, and J. Douglas Willms 2001. "Class Size and Student Achievement." Psychological Science in the Public Interest 2(1):1–30.[Free Full Text]

Hanushek, Eric. 1999. "Some Findings from an Independent Investigation of the Tennessee STAR Experiment and from Other Investigations of Class Size Effects." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 21(2):143–64.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Hanushek, Eric, John Kain, and Seven Rivkin. 2004. "Disruption versus Tiebout Improvement: The Costs and Benefits of Switching Schools." Journal of Public Economics 88(9–10): 1721–46.

Hoxby, Caroline Minter. 2000. "The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement: New Evidence from Population Variation." Quarterly Journal of Economics 115(4):1239–86.

Jepsen, Christopher, and Steven Rivkin. 2002. Class Size Reduction, Teacher Quality, and Academic Achievement in California Elementary Public Schools . San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California.

Krueger, Alan. 1999. "Experimental Estimates of Education Production Functions." Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(2):497–532.

Krueger, Alan, and Diane Whitmore. 2001. "The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the Early Grades on College Test-Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project STAR." The Economic Journal 111(1):1–28.

Rivkin, Steven. 2006. "Cumulative Nature of Learning and Specification Bias in Education Research." Unpublished.

Rivkin, Steven G., Eric A. Hanushek, and John F. Kain 2005. "Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement." Econometrica 73(2):417–58.

Ross, Randy. 1999. "How Class-Size Reduction Harms Kids in Poor Neighborhoods." Education Week, May 26.

Sims, David. 2003. "How Flexible is Educational Production? Combination Classes and Class Size Reduction in California." Unpublished.

Stecher, Brian and George Bohrnstedt, eds. 2000. Class Size Reduction in California: The 1998–1999 Evaluation Findings . Sacramento: California Department of Education.

Stecher, Brian and George Bohrnstedt, eds. 2002. What Have We Learned about Class Size Reduction in California? Sacramento: California Department of Education.

Todd, Petra, and Kenneth I. Wolpin 2003. "On the Specification and Estimation of the Production Function for Cognitive Achievement." Economic Journal 113(485): F3–F33.

Unlu, Fatih. 2005. "California Class Size Reduction Reform: New Findings from the NAEP." Unpublished.

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jepsen, C. Articles by Rivkin, S. Search for Related Content